Getting Weird Looks for Knowing Random Stuff

[Greenday]

Last night, in my Love & Marriage class, my teacher was finishing up answering anonymous questions and one of them involved rape kits and how long can you wait before getting one done. He didn't know much about it so I explained the basics of performing a rape kit and that how long you wait kinda depends on what exactly happened.

The stares I got were crazy. Like "Why the hell would you know that?" I tried to explain I learned it in my forensic chem class but that didn't seem to make a difference.

Another one is the fact that if you ask someone in court if they've had sex with a chimp, you will automatically be held in contempt of court and thrown out of the court room.

I just don't like that even though I have plausible and reasonable reasons for knowing stuff like this, people still give me looks like I have no business knowing these things.

[KabeRinnaul]

I get this a lot, but for me the answer why is usually along the lines of "The 'Random Page' button on Wikipedia."

However, I mainly replied for another reason.

Another one is the fact that if you ask someone in court if they've had sex with a chimp, you will automatically be held in contempt of court and thrown out of the court room.

That being that this may be the best out-of-context quote ever recorded.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I got stares and baffled comments when I took a tour of Red Rock Canyon and appeared to know quite a bit about the Mohave Desert.

I mean, I wasn't trying to show off, but once I got a couple questions right, the tour guide started just asking me all this crazy stuff to see if I would actually get it right, and to his shock, I did.

He was really amazed I knew all this stuff. Frankly, so was I.

I read a lot.

[HYHYBT]

Well, I suppose it depends on the case: if a chimp you've been spending a lot of time around gives birth to something like an australopithacus...

I often don't share my odd knowledge precisely to avoid peoples' wondering why I know it. Especially when I don't even *know* why I know it.

[Greenday]

That being that this may be the best out-of-context quote ever recorded.

I don't follow. What do you mean?

[Fryk]

I used to memorize stuff to purposely get that look from people, I think it's hilarious. Even my pre-Calculus teacher thought it was weird when I could quote the square root of 2 to the ninth decimal place.

[Kheldarson]

I don't follow. What do you mean?

He's amused by it. That's all it is usually.

[McDreidel09]

As a member of the Scholastic Bowl team in High School, I had to know random facts. So in class, I would happen to know something. I would get either strange looks or "Of course SHE knows about that." Either way, it was annoying.

[jackfaire]

I have always been an avid reader, scholar and I converse with people from around the world.

I get the weird looks when I know some obscure bit of knowledge.

[AdminAssistant]

I have a good mind for trivia. I have a great mind for theatre history. I was talking with a colleague about Romanticism and was able to go through the rise of Romanticism in French theatre. My colleague said, "You know all that?" To which I replied, "You don't?" I mean, come on, this is our field and there's stuff you should know. I mean, yeah, I get a lot of shit for liking 'obscure' playwrights, but Schiller and Mayakovsky should not be obscure to a freakin' doctoral student in theatre.

[Greenday]

He's amused by it. That's all it is usually.

Oh. There's a chemical in human semen called P30. It is found in humans, chimps, and one other primate, the gibbon possibly. But yea, for the longest time, it was only though that human males had it. Once it was discovered in two other species, defense attorneys would throw out the possibility that the plaintiff had sex with either a chimp or gibbon and the jury would sometimes actually buy it, despite being a load of crap. Finally, the legal system came up with a new law that if you even ask someone if they had sex with either animal, you are in contempt of court.

So naturally this knowledge comes in handy while drunk at the bar.

[KabeRinnaul]

I don't follow. What do you mean?

Say you're at a mall or in an office building or some similar environment. You're waiting for an elevator, and when it finally arrives, there are two men in suits inside having a conversation. You get on as you hear one man say to the other, "So then I asked the guy, 'Have you ever had sex with a chimp?' And the judge had me thrown out of court."

And then they get off the elevator and you don't hear anything else.

That's the sort of thing I picture given a line like that. It helps that I was unaware of that law you just mentioned, and thus knew of no reason for two people to be having such a conversation.

He's amused by it. That's all it is usually.

Also this. I generally have a really stupid sense of humor.

[I8DaCookie]

I can recall twice when I've had that happen:

1) It was my very first college class, "Where is the science in science fiction." We basically watched movies and talked about them, it was awesome. We were about to watch Blade Runner and my prof. asked if anyone knew what the movie was originally based on. Me being the sci-fi geek that I was easily raised my hand and answered "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep." Every head slowly turned to me and every eye was wide in surprise.

2) Was in my short story class and my prof. was trying to recall the quote the Joker said to Batman in the belltower (first movie) and I easily recited the quote. Once again, wide-eyed looks.

My useless triva knowledge came in handy for triva games, helped us win $2000 earlier this year!

[Bloodsoul]

Only odd knowledge I can recall off of the top of my head was that apparently dropping a marshmallow onto a neutron star would have a similar effect to dropping a nuclear bomb on the earth.

I no longer know if that's correct or not, though.

[Fryk]

What's really sad is, I can remember the opening theme song for "The Greatest American Hero" word for word, but I can't remember why I walked downstairs into the living room.